Google seems to be on a rampage of updates with small tweaks and adjustments to a number of apps. I like to think of it as polish. YouTube in particular has been flying through minor version bumps, the latest of which seems to include just a single visual adjustment to the player screen. Tap on the screen while a video is playing and the overlay now contains the current video's title, the channel it's from, and the total number of views it has acquired thus far. Take a look at the shot below.

Here's a comparison shot from v11.12. It almost looks barren without the extra text. How did we live this way for so many years?

For fairly obvious reasons, the text only shows up in landscape orientation with the video in full screen–hardly anything would fit in portrait mode. If nothing else, this is a useful addition when videos switch in a playlist or if you want to take a second look at the title without rotating the screen. On the other hand, it might have just been added to give purpose to all of that empty space.

It looks like this update to YouTube had one other surprise waiting for those users with the Android N Developer Preview installed. One of the hot new features in this release is a split screen feature that allows users to get a pair of apps going at the same time.

Since this isn't the most typical situation for apps to be in, a fair number of them behave in somewhat unexpected ways, YouTube being one of them. The issue occurs when YouTube ceases to be the app with focus, at which point the video window would go black. If a user is a YouTube Red subscriber, the audio would still continue to play, just without video.

Version 11.13 takes care of that. Changing focus between windows will now leave the video playing despite losing focus. There's still a bit of glitchiness, probably because split screen is still fairly glitchy, but it definitely works. The screenshot above shows that it's working. Notice there is video playing in the top pane while the bottom pane is in mid-drag between pages on the Play Store. If you weren't already trying out Android N, this might make a convincing argument to give it a shot.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

It's all still there (at least it was the last time I thought to look), it's just that nobody can get them without either getting switched over by Google or rooting and manually changing the values on your device.

I will admit, I would greatly prefer to get the playback control from Play Movies & TV. It's really smooth and you can get precision down to the second. But frankly, I'd take anything over the awkward seek bar on YouTube videos, at least since a third of what I watch measures 20 minutes or more, where the seek bar is nearly unusable if you just need to go back a few seconds.

Total Security

Exactly my thoughts!

Total Security

Isn't it strange that I have it, because I live in Germany? :D But I don't like it. You can just go forward 10 seconds or rewind 10 seconds. You cannot steadily forward or rewind...

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BeerOnTap

Google has the share icon that actually makes sense, on literally every other app. But for some reason they went with this awful choice on YouTube. I don't get it.

Vinícius Souza

I dream with the day it will be possible to control playback speed just like on desktop (Google Drive also!). Is that so much impossible?

Edds

I dream about windowed Youtube player without paying for Red or so...

Marcel Ulbrich

If by windowed you mean a popout player, here's a workaround: open YouTube, put everything you want to watch into your "Watch later" playlist. Open YouTube Gaming, open the "Watch later" playlist and use the popout player there. YouTube Gaming can play any YouTube video out there, but content discovery for non-gaming related videos isn't great obviously.

Edds

thanks will try, but still dont kow why this options is not by default in stock youtube app

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

We've waited for like a year to get 60fps support. Don't hold your breath for playback speed

Henry

"Some ppl complain about rain others dont have rain" (byMe :-)
I think that new youtube updates are not available anymore on Android 4.0?
Becouse last available update for my Samsung Tab is from 28 January (but that one breaks 720p option to only 360p so no thanks).
So i guess: "new things are not allways good"
And im not buying a new Tab soon if thats the point :-D

Sergey Otro

I use BSPlayer for this. You have to open video in YouTube app, share it to BSPlayer and choose desired playback speed in it.

(I said nobody would make an on-topic comment about this overlay. Leave it to Rita to play dirty.)

Wikiwix

Another on-topic comment:
The cast buttons are not the same ;)

lisandro

I WAITED FOR THIS FOR SO LONG TOOOOO

Matthias

YouTube doesnt remember my searches anymore, i have this on all my Android devices. When i press the search button, it only shows 4 searches and they are all from 1-2 years ago. It wont show recent searches. Anyone who has experience with this issue? I cant seem to fix it.

Are you sure you don't have search history paused? Go into the overflow menu -> Settings -> Privacy and look for "Pause search history". Make sure that's disabled, or maybe toggle it on and back off to try resetting it if it's stuck somewhere.

There might be some other Google setting that's screwing it up, but I can't think of what it would be. Nevertheless, if the first thing doesn't work, you might try wandering through your master Google privacy settings for something that shuts down search history or something like that.

Matthias

Search history was not paused. Turned it on and then back off. Doesnt fix it. I will search further.

Ra1nb0wD4sh DE

I've got the exactly same issue. :/

Matthias

i think maybe it is because i still have a old youtube account. I also have one connected to my gmail and it shows my google+ name as username. The one i use most of the time is like 5-6 years old, but all my subscriptions, favourites, playlists are on this account, so i dont want to switch

saf1927

Are you using an Adblocker like Adway, etc.? If so, whitelist "s.youtube.com" and make sure you rebuilt the host files by reapplying it.

Matthias

No I have a stock Galaxy S7. I have the same issue on my Xperia Z3 Compact tablet.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

@CodyToombs:disqus have you seen the Related Videos panel in the player overlay yet? It appeared for me last week. Looks like this:

I had this update a while ago. It looks messy and cluttered to me. AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T FIXED THE SHARE BUTTON.

Corey Watford

Google Let us Like Comments already, iOS has had this for decades lol!!!

xdapao3

What the fullscreen view lacked bad and still lacks, are the thumb up and thumb down buttons!! As it is now, if you want to upvote/downvote a video you must exit fullscreen mode before procedding to the next video in a playlist!

BTW, if memory serves, we used to be able to do that (or at least I am sure we could on the desktop/web version) but it was removed for who knows what stupid reason! They take up so little space FFS, and one would think that they would encourage engaging the viewer!

The end result is that I am voting for many less videos than I used to, basically only for the ones I feel strong enough to bother exiting fullscreen, voting and going back fullscreen again...

GazaIan

Meanwhile Google still refuses to add 60fps support in the YouTube app for Android TV.

asian_slaw

LLLAANNNNNNNNAAAAA

pol

I was just wishing for this yesterday...

You're welcome, guys.

senor_heisenberg

Cool, Nice tweak.

I had the fast forward/rewind buttons for a few hours yesterday, then they magically disappeared. No more a/b test for me. :(

I think rating buttons (like and dislike) on that screen would also be great, I do not even exit the landscape mode when on the app.

Jon

When are they going to give us a persistent queue? That damn thing clears every time you disconnect from wifi when chromecasting, or close the app, or pause playback for too long. I hate pausing, taking the dog for a crap, coming back and the whole damn queue is cleared. Just set it up like google play music already, that playlist won't ever clear even when I want it to sometimes lol.

Jaromir

This post reminds me that new Archer episode is to be aired today. Impatiently waiting!